Promising engineer loses the job he loved after a drink-drive crash

Jon Cooper

Published:12:45Monday 23 April 2018

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A promising young engineer has lost the job he loved after he crashed a works van while he was driving at twice the drink-drive limit.

Chesterfield magistrates’ court heard how Charles John Burns, 26, of Rye Crescent, Danesmoor, at Clay Cross, had just dropped a friend off after they had enjoyed a curry before he crashed into two parked cars.

Prosecuting solicitor Lynn Bickley said: “The circumstances are that on March 30, at 10.30pm, police were called to attend Coniston Road, at Dronfield, after a report that a vehicle had collided with two parked cars.

“On their arrival, they spoke to the driver of the vehicle and he was clearly intoxicated and he provided a positive roadside breath test.”

Mrs Bickley added that a further test at the police station registered 72microgrammes of alcohol in 100millilitres of breath when the legal limit is 35microgrammes.

Burns told police he had been to the Mint Leaf curry house on Green Lane, at Dronfield, and he had consumed alcohol and then he had dropped a friend off before colliding with the two parked cars.

He added that he had been planning to leave the van in a car park but he ended up driving because he did not want to leave his works vehicle because it had tools in the back.

Burns pleaded guilty to exceeding the alcohol drink-drive limit.

Defence solicitor Denny Lau said once he left the restaurant he feared it was not the best location to leave the van with £2,000 of tools inside especially because the van had been broken into before.

Mr Lau added: “I have a letter from his employer saying that he has been dismissed. At 21-years-old he has worked for the company for the last three years and he was an engineer and travelled up and down the country and he’s now lost his job, which he loved, and he had just been promoted.”

Magistrates fined Burns £120 and ordered him to pay £85 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.

He was also disqualified from driving for 17 months but he can reduce his ban by 18 weeks if he completes a drink-drive rehabilitation course.